I'd love to hear about boss mechanics you're having trouble with. Is there a boss that makes you fail on the same old mechanic over and over? Or was there in the past? Were Alysrazor's tornadoes the bane of your life? Or couldn't you figure out Heigan's "dance"?

I'll make a start. First of all, I can be remarkably slow at picking things up. The number of times I got hit by the fire-waves on Ragnaros (this was on my holy priest) was nothing short of embarrassing - until suddenly, the penny dropped and I never took another tick of damage from them again (d'oh!).

This tier, it's the Will of the Emperor "dance". I just can't seem to figure out what people mean when they say "if the weapon is on the right shoulder, he'll strike left" - to me it looks like he's hitting BEHIND himself half the time... I've gotten a little better by looking at the blue "markers", but I'm still sometimes in the way of a strike. That kind of thing makes me question my IQ.

Other mechanics that people seem to have trouble with, I find very easy - like Attenuation. To me, it's slow-moving discs with a clear path in between them where I can run in a circle. But I'm not going to judge anyone, because I know a lot of people to whom the Will of the Emperor thing is "perfectly obvious" and who claim that you have "ages" to move aside, lol.

Your turn!

-Sibylle

"Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious." (Brendan Gill)

Sibylle wrote:This tier, it's the Will of the Emperor "dance". I just can't seem to figure out what people mean when they say "if the weapon is on the right shoulder, he'll strike left" - to me it looks like he's hitting BEHIND himself half the time... I've gotten a little better by looking at the blue "markers", but I'm still sometimes in the way of a strike. That kind of thing makes me question my IQ.

I would recommend a bird's-eye view during arcs. You'll have a much clearer picture as to where he'll strike next (blue flash indicators). Another thing I do is play relatively close to his hit box, so I just move enough to get out of the way.

i have to admit that i like looking at WoL to see if i got hit by attenuation. I have been able to get through that fight a couple times unscathed by those evil rings. =D

i hate any fight with a vehicle or button mechanic. Since i hotkey everything but the extra action button. Just clicking on a button feels so foreign to me. [ultra... so boring and a button to boot] But I do like getting "la Button" [OP strikes] on will of emperor. I love the dance. And I love the button treat for doing a good job. =D I eagerly await its appearance. I do help the tank out by hitting Sroar ..especially if they get stunned. But the dynamic is really fun. Braggin rights to who got the most OP strikes in the end.

The mechanic i hate the most is jasper chains [especially with pools and colbolt]. I always get attached to some mage who thinks it's smart to blink away to break them. omg!

Sibylle wrote:This tier, it's the Will of the Emperor "dance". I just can't seem to figure out what people mean when they say "if the weapon is on the right shoulder, he'll strike left" - to me it looks like he's hitting BEHIND himself half the time... I've gotten a little better by looking at the blue "markers", but I'm still sometimes in the way of a strike. That kind of thing makes me question my IQ.

Thank god I'm not the only one. Our guild's been slow progressing this tier, so I've only done the fight on LFR....but I tend to keep away from the bosses as much as possible and just work on adds it's so bad. I'm not sure if I've been so fail at a mechanic up to this point.

I had some ambarrassing moments on Atramedes last expansion, so I vowed I would move to a joystick based movement system, as strafing has always been my weak point. I got a G13 gamepad with a joystick on the side and I am so pleased because the Will dance is now less stressful -I am actually pretty good at it, and stuff like the tornado run on blade lord is better too.

Best way to deal with the Will of the Emperor dance is to watch the boss that you are focusing on and look for the slashing animations and move to the opposite side of them. I struggled with finding a visual aid to help with perfecting the dance initially until I watched a simple video that pointed out how obvious it actually was.

My most memorable fail was when i played my shaman healer at the start of Ulduar.

Guild i was in was competing for servers first and i had just been accepted as a trial member for the healing team.

So, the tactics was explained at the start and people said, if you see a small beam of lightning, step aside.I took this to heart and whenever i saw a small beam of lightning, i made sure i wasn't standing on it.

Little did i know that the small beam of lightning was the warning for the big cone lightning attack, so I got hit every time.The raid leader started telling me to avoid the lightning and because my pc wasn't up to par back then, i never saw the lightning cone, only the small beam, so I kept repeating i was avoiding it.

After 3 or 4 times, the RL had to take a quick break, in which case I quickly jumped on youtube to figure out what i did wrong, only there did i realise it was the big lightning cone that damaged me, never got hit after again, even when doing the 'Hard mode' version of thorim Where at some point it was just me and the raid leader who were still alive killing thorim.

Bethany wrote:Best way to deal with the Will of the Emperor dance is to watch the boss that you are focusing on and look for the slashing animations and move to the opposite side of them. I struggled with finding a visual aid to help with perfecting the dance initially until I watched a simple video that pointed out how obvious it actually was.

For the longest time, I was trying to key on the sword and the arcs. If by some miracle, I got the right side, I'd get caught in the back swing. It was so bad on the 2nd night of attempts that I was trying to bribe my mates to be the strength "tank".

Well, that all changed when I read a random blog post from someone reviewing their impressions of the encounter on beta (can't remember who or I'd link it!). The advice that worked for me was to watch the feet positioning. For most of the arcs, he'll have a staggered stance, ie one foot in front and one in back, slight off to the side. In that case, just aim to be a couple of yards to the outside of the back foot and you'll be good. Then that just leaves the front arc (front foot slightly off the ground = "get to the back of the boss") and the stomp (front foot high off the ground = outta melee range). FWIW, it's worked well for me and now I don't worry about being left on the bench for heroic attempts.

Stranglehorn wrote:Well, that all changed when I read a random blog post from someone reviewing their impressions of the encounter on beta (can't remember who or I'd link it!). The advice that worked for me was to watch the feet positioning. For most of the arcs, he'll have a staggered stance, ie one foot in front and one in back, slight off to the side. In that case, just aim to be a couple of yards to the outside of the back foot and you'll be good. Then that just leaves the front arc (front foot slightly off the ground = "get to the back of the boss") and the stomp (front foot high off the ground = outta melee range). FWIW, it's worked well for me and now I don't worry about being left on the bench for heroic attempts.

Your mileage may vary

Thanks for that. I've done it several times in LFR and actually stop DPS altogether to practice for when I have to do it with my guild. I've been successfull several times but not consistantly enough. Of course, part of this (i'm hoping) is my Aussie lag that gives me less reaction time. Hopefully your tips will help me in the future.

The other thing I stuggle with a little is not hitting the extra button that pops up in time. Nothing is more irritating than finally managing the dance and then failing to hit the button in time! I really need keybind it

Sybelle your not the only one who has issues with this fight. In fact..i think my issue is i have too much run speed so i run our farther than i need to panic and run back in and get hit. I was so irritated at myself i went HOTW wrath spam for this so i could avoid one of the combos lol. i have almost gotten it figured out..but there is always one of the attacks that i get hit by. i've admitted that on two fights so far..i just plain suck. enough that i lost my 25man raid spot to a mage. C'est la vie

Here is a dancing video that you can watch. I recommend paying attention to his feet as you watch this, and telling yourself where you need to move to over and over - and also visualizing how that movement will feel so you can train your muscle memory.

Heh, my video quite clearly showcases my fail on attenuation. It took me forever to realize that the middle of the lane is -not- the safest place. You want to run almost touching the inside border of the lane - it's creepy that walking over orbs don't trigger them yet running in the middle of the safe zone does. /shrug @ lag.

Just letting you guys know, we finally went back to Mogu'Shan the other day (after a week exclusively in HoF), and after failing the first time I managed the "dance" twice, and got my extra button! I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it.

I also got the 2-piece tier from LFR the other day and slowly but surely my dps is improving. I'm among the first 10 now on nearly every fight, now give me a weapon and I'll go for the top five! Dumdedum. Seems I haven't forgotten everything I learned in DS after all

-Sibylle

"Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious." (Brendan Gill)